Raaff (Druid Heal!) threw some Lifebloom numbers out there first, looking at its new efficiency and throughput. His post left me asking two questions:

1. Does equipping 2pT7, which lowers the cost of Lifebloom have any affect on the amount of mana you get back when it blooms?

2. What is the throughput and efficiency of just Lifebloom? (Since Raaff’s calculations were for a full reasonable cast cycle.)

Averna (Nerf this Druid) ran some numbers on throughput of Lifebloom alone. Her calculations included the bloom portion. This left me asking:

3. In a worst case scenario, or most like the current situation scenario, the bloom will all be overheal. What does this mean for Lifeblooms efficiency and throughput?

Scroll to the bottom to skips mathz and see conclusions.

This post has been highly inspired by Raaff and Averna and may subconsciously draw from their work, although I did all my own number crunching using my gear. If you haven’t checked out their 3.1 PTR work yet, please do so.

Currently a Lifebloom cycle is 10 seconds long (with Glyph), costs 366 mana (with 2pT7), and a single Lifebloom ticks for 400 (for me), 800 for two, and 1200 for 3. I am going to ignore the mana cost and time to get the stack up, since most druids will not let that stack fall off the main tank.

PTR Blooming Overheal (w/ 2pT7) For this calculation I will assume that all of the Bloom over the healing done by a normal tick will go to overheal, since it is very difficult on most fights to predict damage 10 seconds into the future. A Lifebloom cycle is now 12 seconds long, since we need to rebuild our stack of 3. Half of mana refunded at the Bloom is equal to 1469 mana refunded.

PTR Blooming Not Overhealed (w/ 2pT7) This is a calculation that is probably too good to be true. But once and a while we may get lucky and our entire bloom may go to effective healing. My bloom heals for 9703 HP.

1a. Equipping 2pT7 does not effect the amount of mana you get back when Lifebloom blooms. It was 1,469 mana returned with or without it. It makes casting Lifebloom 6% more efficient if you are rolling blooms and 20% more efficient if you are letting the blooms bloom. 4pT8 is going to have to be really really good to get Resto Druids to give up 2pT7.

2a. If your bloom is not overhealing, this will actually be a 39% buff to the throughput of Lifebloom. At least they threw us some consolation prize.

2b. Sadly, we are experiencing a 10% increase to the cost of Lifebloom. This is the best case scenario, if your bloom is going to effective healing.

3a. Throughput of Lifebloom ticks alone will drop 15%. This assumes all the bloom is overheal. I predict we will not notice any change in throughput for Lifebloom, since most of the time the bloom will be overheal, but once and a while it will actually contribute something. Your ability to predict the future… I mean damage… will make a big difference on how much of a nerf/buff this is to your Lifeblooms.

3b. The nerf could be as high as a 83% increase to cost. Again, your ability to predict the future will determine where you fall on the 10% to 83% cost increase spectrum. If you plan on rolling those blooms still, you are looking at a 106% increase, that you can do nothing about. Ouch!

Suggestions

1. Wear your 2pT7 until you absolutely have to break it. Make sure you are going into T8 with all 5 pieces of T7, even if you are not wearing them now. This will give you the most flexibility to keep the 2pT7 bonus as you pick up new pieces of gear after the patch.

2. Be prepared to not roll Lifeblooms. Start practicing now in heroics, 10 mans, and/or on 25 man trash. You have a bad habit to break, even though it was once good. This is like unlearning to brush your teeth in the morning and unlearning to put on your seat belt in the car. It will feel very very wrong, but it is the way to be mana efficient.

3. Whether this will be a nerf or a buff to your Lifebloom throughput and how badly of a nerf it will be to your efficiency will depend on your ability to predict damage. If you are not running BigWigs or Deadly Boss Mod timers, for heaven’s sake get them. Practice now watching cool downs on abilities and finishing the three stack (ie adding the final LB to a stack of 2) 10 seconds before you know the tank will take increased damage. Some fights this will be impossible. Other fights it will just be freaking hard.

Any questions/comment/complaints welcome as always. I did most of this math on a note card waiting for Watchmen to start (good movie!) so I am very open to “Aert, you can’t add here.”